JAYBIRD COLEMAN & THE BIRMINGHAM JUG BAND — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1927-1930 | DOCD-5140 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks), lossless

Jaybird Coleman wasn't one of the most distinctive early country-blues harmonica players, but he nevertheless made engaging, entertaining music. All of his recordings -- which only totalled 11 sides -- are collected on Document's 1927-1930. For fans of the genre, there are some cuts of interest here, but the music doesn't have enough weight to be of interest to anyone but country-blues fanatics. Thom Owens

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. It is highly unlikely that the correct personnel will ever be known for this energetic, but enigmatic, group. The standard sources give the following possible group members, information which was apparently obtained many years ago from Big Joe Williams: Jaybird Coleman (harp), Joe Williams, “One-Armed Dave” (Dave Miles), “Dr. Scott”, Bogus Ben Covington (stringed instruments), “Honeycup”, (jug), “New Orleans Slide”, (washboard). There may be elements of accuracy in Williams’ assertions; certainly his word will stand until more reliable information surfaces. One fact is indisputable: the Birmingham Jug Band participated in an exceptionally diverse field session in Atlanta that included the Middle Georgia Singing Convention No.1, Macon Ed and Tampa Joe, Rev. J. M. Gates, and King David’s Jug Band. The truth is that the names themselves are not as important as the music itself because the Birmingham Jug Band was one of the most raucous groups to record. I wish I’d been able to attend one of their live performances (they sound like a group that played together and were not just a studio band), but we can hear eight of the nine selections they recorded for OKeh in December of 1930. These sides underscore their place in American music history as one of the most irrepressible jug bands ever to record. Its varied repertoire reflects the general diversity of African-American music in the deep South in the late 1920s; Bill Wilson is an engaging version of “John Henry”, while Giving It Away reflects the hokum blues so popular at the time. One of their most entertaining performances, The Wild Cat Squall is a hectic, almost frenzied, showcase for the harmonica player. Kickin’ Mule Blues illustrates two of the group’s most pronounced musical characteristics: its tempo is rather quick and it features a thick musical texture, enriched by the blend of jug, percussion and stringed instruments. Burl C. “Jaybird” Coleman originally from Gainesville, Georgia, is alleged to be the harmonica player for the Birmingham Jug Band, which strikes me as an unlikely proposition, although their styles are not dissimilar. Even if he was not on these jug band sides we know that he served in the Army around World War I, worked with minstrel shows and as a solo artist before his death in June, 1950 in Tuskegee, Alabama. On his own unaccompanied recordings Jaybird Coleman tends to use a higher pitched harp – often playing in the key of C or D. His timing on these recordings issued on Gennett, Black Patti and related labels, not surprisingly, is much more idiosyncratic. These fascinating selections are a compromise between field hollers and blues, especially in Jaybird’s cavalier disregard for the 12-bar blues form and his frequent use of the falsetto voice range. Coleman’s harp also often serves as an extension of his voice or as a call and response, similar to the musical form of a group work song. Like so many “bluesmen”, Jaybird Coleman’s recorded repertoire easily moves between the secular and the sacred. His duet with Ollis Martin, I’m Gonna Cross The River Of Jordan – Some O’ These Days is a masterful version of this 19th century spiritual. Equally strong and moving are the blues-like performances; Man Trouble Blues and Save Your Money – Let These Women Go are tough, personal, and utterly unique. Boll Weevil is his lament for the demise of southern agriculture, which began at the turn of the century, and a highly entertaining version of this blues ballad. His final recordings for Columbia are the only selections on which he sounds somewhat uneasy. It is evident that he has to keep his own creative impulses in check while trying to keep in sync with the unknown piano player. This is particularly evident in Man Trouble Blues, which pales in comparison to his Gennett recording from two and a half years earlier. DOCD-5140
Tracklist :
1    Bertha Ross–    My Jelly Blues 3:08
Accompanied By – Bessemer Blues Pickers
Harmonica [probably] – Jaybird Coleman
Piano – Vance Patterson
Vocals – Bertha Ross
Whistling – Unknown Artist
2    Jaybird Coleman–    Mill Log Blues 2:40
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
3    Jaybird Coleman–    Boll Weevil 2:58
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
4    Jaybird Coleman–    Ah'm Sick And Tired Of Tellin' You (To Wiggle That Thing) 3:03
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
5    Jaybird Coleman–    Man Trouble Blues 3:04
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
6    Jaybird Coleman–    Trunk Busted — Suitcase Full Of Holes 2:59
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
7    Jaybird Coleman–    I'm Gonna Cross The River Of Jordan — Some O' These Days 3:00
Harmonica [2nd hca.] – Ollis Martin
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
8    Jaybird Coleman–    You Heard Me Whistle (Oughta Know My Blow) 3:05
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
9    Jaybird Coleman–    No More Good Water — 'Cause The Pond Is Dry 3:06
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
10    Jaybird Coleman–    Mistreatin' Mama 3:00
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
11    Jaybird Coleman–    Save Your Money — Let These Women Go 2:51
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
12    Frank Palmes–    Ain't Gonna Lay My 'Ligion Down 2:54
Vocals, Harmonica – Frank Palmes
13    Frank Palmes–    Troubled 'Bout My Soul 2:53
Vocals, Harmonica – Frank Palmes
14    Jaybird Coleman–    Coffee Grinder Blues 3:03
Piano [possibly] – R.D. Norwood
Piano [probably] – Robert McCoy
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
15    Jaybird Coleman–    Man Trouble Blues 3:02
Piano [possibly] – R.D. Norwood
Piano [probably] – Robert McCoy
Vocals, Harmonica – Jaybird Coleman
16    Birmingham Jug Band–    German Blues 2:59
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
17    Birmingham Jug Band–    Cane Brake Blues 2:58
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
18    Birmingham Jug Band–    The Wild Cat Squawl 3:17
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
19    Birmingham Jug Band–    Bill Wilson 3:13
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
20    Birmingham Jug Band–    Birmingham Blues 3:14
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Speech – Unknown Artist
21    Birmingham Jug Band–    Gettin' Ready For Trial 3:02
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
22    Birmingham Jug Band–    Giving It Away 3:08
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist
23    Birmingham Jug Band–    Kickin' Mule Blues 3:10
Guitar – Unknown Artist
Harmonica – Unknown Artist
Jug – Unknown Artist
Mandolin – Unknown Artist
Vocals – Unknown Artist

COW COW DAVENPORT — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1925 to 1929 | DOCD- 5141 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The complete output of pianist/singer Cow Cow Davenport as a leader has been made available on two CDs by Europe's Document CD; his sideman dates are also available on two other CDs. Because Cow Cow (named after his famous "Cow Cow Blues") is often categorized as a member of the blues world, it is sometimes overlooked how strong a jazz/blues pianist he was. On this first volume, Davenport is heard collaborating with singer Dora Carr, playing duets with cornetist B.T. Wingfield, interacting with singer Sam Theard, and performing heated solos which are sometimes commented upon by his partner Ivy Smith; in addition, there are a few solo instrumentals that really show what Davenport could do. The highlights include "Chimes Blues," "Atlanta Rag," "Back In the Alley" and four versions of "Cow Cow Blues." Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Through the efforts of early jazz enthusiasts we know more about Charles “Cow Cow” Davenport than any of the pioneer blues and boogie pianists. Born in 1894 in Anniston, Alabama into a religious and musical family, he taught himself on the church organ. A brief sojourn at the Theological Seminary, Selma was terminated in 1910 when he played piano too freely for a function where the students marched (dancing was not allowed) and “the girls got so frisky they couldn’t march in time”. This incident was to inspire his most popular and enduring song, Mama Don’t Allow No Music Playing Here while the general disapproval of church people for the music he wanted to play led to his coining the term “boogie woogie”. As badly behaved children would be threatened with the “boogie man” (“bogey man”) Davenport said, “I called my music ‘Boogie’ music”. Note that in Davenport’s dictionary the phrase covered all the music “in the honky tonks, joints where nice people did not go”.

A short-lived (one year) marriage to a blues singer pianist Helen Rivers led to Cow Cow Blues (Railroad Blues) his most famous song: “I was so blue I commenced to get drunk. I went from honky tonk to honky tonk drinking everything I could get my hands on. When I walked out on stage that night I could hardly stand up straight. But I had sense enough to pretend like it was part of the act. I made up some words right there on the spot and began to sing my sadness:
Lord I woke up this morning, my gal was gone Fell out my bedside, hung my head and moaned Went down to state and I couldn’t be satisfied Had those Railroad Blues I just too mean to cry

His despair was short-lived too for he met singer Dora Carr who “pestered” him until they teamed up and worked the T.O.B.A. circuit as Davenport And Carr. Laid off in New Orleans they met Ralph Peer who sent them to New York and the first recordings as a vocal duo for Okeh followed in 1924 with Clarence Williams on piano and it was to be a year before Cow Cow Davenport was to play piano on record. Even then the session for Gennett went unissued (possibly because of the Okeh contract?) and it was later that year that Williams allowed him to accompany Dora on Cow Cow Blues. One more Davenport And Carr duo the next year (see BDCD-6040) and the relationship with Dora and, it seems, Okeh broke up. A Paramount session in 1927 with new partner Ivy Smith had violin accompaniment from Leroy Pickett and cornet by B. T. Wingfield who was in Pickett’s band at the Apollo Theatre, Chicago but 1928 and ’29 were the boom years with over twenty sessions for Vocalion and Gennett with Ivy Smith, novelty numbers with his new discovery Sam Theard, accompaniments to Hound Head Henry, probably Jim Towel and Memphis Joe (BDCD-6041) and brilliant solo sessions in a rich variety of styles. Along the definitive Cow Cow Blues and State Street Jive, great classics of Blues piano, Alabama Strut and Atlanta Rag were consummate ragtime while Mootch Piddle hinted at his vaudeville comedy routines. Cow Cow Blues was his most influential number but Dirty Ground Hog was even recalled by John Lee Hooker at his 1952 Chess session. Constantly in demand Cow Cow Davenport must have thought the good times were going to last for ever. DOCD-5141
Tracklist :
1        Cow Cow Blues    2:53
2        Alabama Mistreater    3:01
3        Jim Crow Blues    3:07
4        Goin' Home Blues    3:18
5        New Cow Cow Blues    2:53
6        Stealin' Blues    2:38
7        Cow Cow Blues [Take 1]    3:05
8        Cow Cow Blues [Take 2]    3:10
9        State Street Jive [Take 1]    3:01
10        State Street Jive [Take 2]    3:04
11        Chimin' The Blues    3:11
12        Alabama Strut    2:52
13        Alabama Mistreater    2:53
14        Dirty Ground Hog (Blues)    2:51
15        Chimes Blues    3:19
16        Struttin' The Blues    3:07
17        Givin' It Away    2:28
18        Slow Drag    3:15
19        Atlanta Drag    3:11
20        That'll Get It    3:22
21        I'm Gonna Tell You In Front So You Won't Be Hurt Behind    3:24
22        State Street Blues    2:49
23        Back In The Alley    2:56
24        Mootch Piddle    2:53

COW COW DAVENPORT — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1929 to 1945 | DOCD- 5142 (1994) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The second half of the Cow Cow Davenport story (the two Document CDs in this series have all of his recordings as a leader) features Davenport in a variety of settings: solo in 1929; sharing vocal duets with Sam Tarpley and Ivy Smith during 1929-30; sticking to vocalizing on a lone date from 1938; and performing eight selections (six of which are piano solos) in 1945 for what would be his final recordings. Although Cow Cow Davenport ended up quite destitute and forgotten, his music was generally quite joyous, and he was certainly a fine, underrated pianist. Among the more memorable selections on this recommended disc are "Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders," "Everybody Likes That Thing," "The Mess Is Here," "Jeep Boogie" and "Hobson City Stomp." Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. 1928 and ’29 were the good years for Cow Cow Davenport. He was on the staff of Vocalion Records, paid $ 85 a week as a composer, owned a large apartment at 35th & Wabash and had money in the bank. Further he claimed he was even owed $ 3000 royalties on his Paramount sessions. The road beckoned again and with Iva (possibly her correct name?) Smith he put together “Cow Cow’s Chicago Steppers” review. Sinking all his money into it but charging the bus to Paramount, against the owed royalties. He hired musicians, acrobats, comedians and showgirls and, on the eve of the Depression, took to the road. Kansas City was a successful first stop but when they moved down South to Dallas, “things began to break bad”. With no money left the show broke up in Mobile and Cow Cow, who’d pawned the bus several times, ended up in jail and with pneumonia. On release, six months later, arthritis set in and he lost the use of his right arm. Still trying, he joined up with Haeg’s Circus in Florida as a minstrel and eventually made his way to his sister’s in Cleveland. Gradually, he started to play again and when he met Peggy Taylor, a performer who did a dance with snakes and had a show in the city, Cow Cow couldn’t resist. “When you see shows, you always want to join them” he said. He introduced himself as a comedian and he was off on the road again. There was still trouble – this time with the snakes, police and, not surprisingly, landladies. Back in Cleveland, Peggy went to work for the city and Cow Cow kept writing Mayo Williams, now at Decca, who set up the 1938 session. With Sam Price and a bunch of New York musicians he recorded two earlier songs he’d written for Sam Theard; I Ain’t No Ice Man and That’ll Get It and, of course, the vocal version of Cow Cow Blues. (Incidentally the original “Iceman” was the precursor of Bo Carter‘s All Around Man.) Despite the good songs it was not a happy session. Cow Cow only sang (Teddy Bunn remembered Don’t You Loudmouth Me, and Davenport as a loudmouth too) and one can imagine Cow Cow Davenport the old-fashioned, once famous entertainer down on his luck, and desperate for a comeback but his brilliant piano-playing just a memory, trying to impress a slick New York house-band. Cow Cow Davenport was to play piano again, from time to time, in small clubs and jobs engineered by collectors, while working as a washroom attendant and on record for J. H. Alderton Jr‘s Comet label in 1945. A vocal session with Peggy for Rudi Blesh‘s Circle label remains unissued. His last years of poverty on Scoville Avenue in the heart of the Cleveland ghetto have a depressing familiar ring to them. Local jazz enthusiasts had persuaded A.S.C.A.R to admit Cow Cow as a member and there was a small royalty cheque each month – but not from “Cow Cow Boogie”, a pop song he’d signed away to Leeds Music for $500 in 1942. DOCD-5134
Tracklist :
1    Cow Cow Davenport–    We Gonna Rub It 3:12
Piano [Solo], Speech – Cow Cow Davenport
2    Cow Cow Davenport–    Texas Shout 3:10
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
3    Cow Cow Davenport–    Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders 3:03
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
4    Cow Cow Davenport–    Slum Gullion Stomp 3:09
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
5    Memphis Sam And John–    It's Just All Right 3:00
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Sam Tarpley
6    Memphis Sam And John–    Everybody Likes That Thing 3:04
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Ivy Smith, Sam Tarpley
7    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    He Don't Mean Me No Harm 3:02
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
8    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    You Got Another Thought Coming To You 2:45
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
9    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    Now She Gives It Away 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
10    Cow Cow Davenport–    Don't You Loud Mouth Me 2:33
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
11    Cow Cow Davenport–    I Ain't No Ice Man 2:43
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
12    Cow Cow Davenport–    The Mess Is Here 2:43
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
13    Cow Cow Davenport–    Railroad Blues 2:40
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
14    Cow Cow Davenport–    That'll Get It 2:35
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
15    Cow Cow Davenport–    Jump Little Jitterbug 2:54
Piano, Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
16    Cow Cow Davenport–    Gotta Girl For Every Day Of The Week 3:06
Piano, Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
17    Cow Cow Davenport–    Jeep Boogie 2:55
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
18    Cow Cow Davenport–    Chimin' Away 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
19    Cow Cow Davenport–    Hobson City Stomp 2:54
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
20    Cow Cow Davenport–    Run Into Me 2:58
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
21    Cow Cow Davenport–    "Cow Cow's" Stomp 3:03
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
22    Cow Cow Davenport–    Gin Mill Stomp 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1928-1929 | DOCD-5134 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Completists, specialists and academics take note -- Document's Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1928-1929) offers an exhaustive overview of Leroy Carr's early recordings. Less dedicated listeners will probably find the long running time, exacting chronological sequencing, poor fidelity (all cuts are transferred from original acetates and 78s), and number of performances a bit off-putting, even though the serious blues listener will find all these factors to be positive. Thom Owens

The little that is known of Leroy Carr‘s early life was garnered by Duncan Schiedt in the late fifties when he interviewed his sister, Eva Mae, and Francis “Scrapper” Blackwell. Carr was born in Nashville, Tennessee on March 27th 1905, the son of John Carr and his wife Katie Dozier. The family moved to Indianapolis when he was six and his sister recalled that when he was a young teenager a pianist came play at the Pot Roast club and Leroy copied what he’d heard being played at the club on her piano at home. By the time he was twenty he was a proficient singer-pianist. His early life is typically obscure but it is known that he joined a travelling circus and even served in the army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Duncan Schiedt was shown a photograph in the possession of his sister of the young Carr in full army uniform holding his discharge papers. At some point a music store owner named Guernsey introduced him to guitarist Francis “Scrapper” Blackwell and they formed a piano and guitar duo. In June 1928 Vocalion sent a field unit to Indianapolis to record, probably, Blackwell who pointed them in the direction of Carr. On 28th June, at the age of 23, Leroy Carr, accompanied by Blackwell recorded My Own Lonesome Blues and How Long How Long which were released two months later on Vocalion 1191. How Long, How Long was the lead side and the record became an instant success. For a record to be successful back then probably meant sales were in the region of ten thousand copies. The tune was unforgettable as was Carr’s mournful vocal even though the lyric had its root in an Ida Cox song and the structure was that of Crow Jane. So popular did the song become that the pair were recalled to the Chicago studio the following month. On 20th July they cut three titles each, none of which saw release, and they returned the following month for another attempt. Of Carr’s eight titles all but two were released and those all maintained the plaintive, nostalgic air, of his first record. “My home ain’t here, it’s in dear old Tennessee”, he lamented in “Tennessee Blues” and to a train rhythm played with the left hand and assorted railroad imitations, Mean Old Train Blues, carried the “How Long” theme further,

“Number One’s at the Station, Number Two out on the road, I keep on wonderin’ where did my baby go”.

Twenty years later the song was successfully re-cut by Cecil Gant as Train Time. For You’ve Got To Reap What You Sow Carr and Blackwell adopted a new melody which prominently featured Scrapper’s guitar. This melody was used two years later by the Mississippi Sheiks for their recording Sittin’ On Top Of The World. That November / December saw a similar pattern of recording – one abortive session followed by a successful retry which included two remodeled versions of How Long. Over the next six years there were to be a further three variations on the How Long theme (which will be covered in future releases in this series). The December session produced Prison Bound, based on his experiences in the Indiana State Farm. In later years the song became synonymous with Josh White and much copied by Piedmont artists. The following February, Carr recorded eleven titles only three, however, saw commercial release one being his crooning rendition of Irving Berlin‘s popular song, How About Me?. Eight of the eleven were remade in March and one of the releases was the two part Straight Alky Blues. For a relatively young man Leroy Carr was an inveterate drinker and his observations on the effect of drinking neat alcohol are frighteningly well observed. His addiction to alcohol was eventually to end his life at the all too young age of thirty.  DOCD-5134
Tracklist :
1        My Own Lonesome Blues    3:02
2        How Long -- How Long Blues    3:05
3        Broken Spoke Blues    2:57
4        Tennessee Blues    3:00
5        Truthful Blues    2:53
6        Mean Old Train Blues    2:59
7        You Got To Reap What You Sow    2:49
8        Low Down Dirty Blues    3:04
9        How Long, How Long Blues -- No. 2    2:44
10        How Long, How Long Blues -- Part 3    3:08
11        Baby, Don't You Love Me No More?    3:11
12        Tired Of Your Low Down Ways    3:10
13        I'm Going Away And Leave My Baby    3:05
14        Prison Bound Blues    3:05
15        You Don't Mean Me No Good    3:13
16        How About Me?    3:26
17        Straight Alky Blues -- Part 1    2:59
18        Think Of Me Thinking Of You    3:04
19        The Truth About The Thing    3:13
20        Straight Alky Blues -- Part I    3:20
21        Straight Alky Blues -- Part II    3:19
22        Lifeboat Blues    2:57
23        Gambler's Blues    3:05
24        There Ain't Nobody Got It Like She's Got It    3:19
Credits :
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Kazoo – Unknown Artist (tracks: 19)
Liner Notes – Alan Balfour
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1929-1930 | DOCD-5135 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

During the 1990s, blues legend Leroy Carr's complete recorded works were reissued in chronological sequence by Document Records Ltd. in six volumes with additional test pressings and alternate takes added to an appendix along with ultra-rare sides by Texas piano man Black Boy Shine. While later editions on other labels may boast of improved audio quality, nobody has ever covered Leroy Carr's recorded legacy more thoroughly or comprehensibly. Document's second volume contains all of his originally issued recordings dating from June 7, 1929 to January 2, 1930. Throughout this seven month stretch, Carr delivered his customary assortment of slow blues and ambling reflections, along with half a dozen upbeat boogie and hokum tunes, greatly spurred by the guitar and singing voice of Scrapper Blackwell. One should never rush into historic blues material looking for instantaneous kicks without stopping to breathe in the majestic honesty of real blues delivered at relaxed tempos without any gimmicks or punch lines. (The slow, thoughtful version of Carr's famous "How Long, How Long Blues" heard on this collection was the first of several sequels, and may be contrasted with a highly sexualized interpretation by Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band wherein Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon does a very convincing impression of an aroused woman being steadily tupped by her lover.) For restless individuals who want to dive directly into humorous foot-tapping entertainment, the "upbeat" titles are "Naptown Blues," "Gettin' All Wet," "That's Tellin' 'Em," "Papa Wants a Cookie," "Memphis Town," and "The Dirty Dozen." arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Indianapolis bluesman Pete “Guitar” Franklin‘s mother, Flossie, used to have Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell “rooming” at her house and he recounted to Art Rosenbaum in 1960 that of the two Blackwell was the one with the aggressive temperament – which had originally led his grandfather nicknaming him “Scrapper”. It seems that as Carr’s career began to blossom, so Blackwell started to harbour a resentment that his own recording career was suffering at the expense of Leroy’s success. Apparently their manager, Guernsey, spent much of his time smoothing over the differences between the mild mannered Carr and the volatile Blackwell, especially when they had been drinking; “Drunk or sober, Leroy was nice. Scrapper was a damn fool drunk or sober”, was Pete Franklin‘s recollection of the relationship. Leroy and Scrapper returned to the studios in June and July 1929 and, perhaps for some of the reasons described or simply because conditions weren’t conductive to successful recording, of the twenty-two titles cut many songs were repeated and in the event only three, That’s All Right For You, Wrong Man Blues and the unique Naptown Blues, were released. However this wasn’t necessarily an indication that Carr was getting stale or running out of ideas – as had been the case with other heavily recorded blues artists – far from it. The recordings made in August that year and January the next year bear witness to Carr having mined a new vein of material; material that not only had variety but also was moving away from the formulaic sound of his earlier recordings. He attempted some Tampa Red / Georgia Tom type hokum pieces with the nonsense lyrics to match, a genre which was very popular with black audiences of the time. Duetting with Blackwell he performed light-hearted numbers like, Getting All Wet, That’s Tellin’ Em, Papa Wants A Cookie and Memphis Town. Interestingly the meter of all four is based on that of the well-known Dirty Dozens which Carr also cut at the same session. Carr’s fondness for this particular melody was probably inspired by the enormous success that Speckled Red enjoyed with the number for Brunswick four months previous. Indeed, Carr’s own rendition of The Dirty Dozen is so reminiscent of Red’s, even down to the boogie piano, that it’s probably a fair assumption that Leroy Carr learnt it either from having heard the song on radio or from the record itself. It has been reported that both Carr and Blackwell had, at one time or another, separately served prison sentences for bootlegging. Therefore they were no strangers to prison conditions or the effect incarceration had on relationships. The sessions in August 1929 and January 1930 witnessed Leroy Carr recording three blues whose central theme was incarceration and the problems it caused. The double-sided release Christmas In Jail – Ain’t It A Pain / Prison Cell was supposedly dedicated to a friend who had experienced such a jail term, while Workhouse Blues found Carr at his most lyrical:
Please Mister Jailer, please unlock this door for me, (x 2) This jail is full of blues, I know they done come down on me. If I had done like my baby told me, (x 2) I would not be in the jail with six long months to stay. I’m a hard working prisoner, sentenced without a trial (x 2) My heart is almost breaking, must be that last long mile. It was 1930 and Leroy Carr‘s “last long mile” into alcoholism had already begun; something he was well aware of as his subsequent recordings attest. DOCD-5135
Tracklist :
11        That's All Right For You    3:13
2        Wrong Man Blues    3:12
3        Naptown Blues    2:44
4        The New How Long, How Long Blues    3:04
5        Love Hides All Faults    2:59
6        I Know That I'll Be Fine    3:19
7        Gettin' All Wet    3:23
8        Rainy Day Blues    3:18
9        Blue With The Blues    3:23
10        Just Worryin' Blues    2:49
11        Baby, You Done Put That Thing On Me    3:18
12        I Won't Miss You When You're Gone    3:11
13        Don't You Get Tired Of Riding That Same Train All The Time?    3:04
14        I'm Going Back To Tennessee    3:12
15        Christmas In Jail - Ain't That A Pain?    3:10
16        Prison Cell Blues    2:46
17        That's Tellin' 'Em    2:58
18        Papa Wants A Cookie    2:43
19        Memphis Town    2:47
20        Don't Say Goodbye    2:53
21        I Ain't Got No Gal    3:10
22        Goodbye Blues    2:45
23        The Dirty Dozen    2:50
24        Workhouse Blues    3:13
Credits :
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Liner Notes – Alan Balfour
Piano – Leroy Carr
Vocals – Leroy Carr (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 16, 20 to 22, 24)
Vocals [vocal duet] – Leroy Carr (tracks: 7, 17 to 19, 23), Scrapper Blackwell (tracks: 7, 17 to 19, 23)

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 3 • 1930-1932 | DOCD-5136 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 (1930-1932) continues Document's exhaustive overview of Leroy Carr's recordings for Vocalion between 1928 and his death in 1935. Though Carr produced a few classics during the year and a half covered by this volume (including "Alabama Women Blues" and "New How Long How Long Blues, Pt. 2"), the vast majority of listeners will have trouble working through this material, much of which sounds very similar. Still, it's the only way to hear the complete work of this important bluesman, which is more than enough for serious blues fans. Thom Owens

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. By 1930 Leroy Carr‘s physique was already beginning to show the effects of his alcoholism and for a man still in his twenties this was not a good sign. As early in his recording career as February 1929 he had sung of drinking; Straight Alky (DOCD-5134) even then managing to conjure up images of impotency and loss of sexual drive with the startling vividness of a mature adult. The session in September 1930 began with Carr soloing on both the maudlin Let’s Make Up And Be Friends Again and the pleading Let’s Disagree (“I know we can’t agree, so let’s disagree”) – both songs directed at a woman he had fallen out with. Given Scrapper’s absence at the start of this session, perhaps it’s not too fanciful to suggest that the songs were veiled references to a disagreement with Blackwell prior to the session and this was Carr’s way of communicating an apology or truce. Whatever the reasons behind Scrapper’s absence, he returned for the remaining eight songs. In fact the two that immediately followed, Sloppy Drunk Blues and Hard Times Done Drove Me To Drink, saw Carr revelling in passing on his drinking experience to his record buying public.
“I’d rather be sloppy drunk than anything I know. Give me another half a pint then baby I must go”, he boasted on the former with Blackwell playing some muscular, almost angry, snapping guitar phrases, while on the latter Carr sang “My mind keeps on rolling, three thousand things on my mind, I just keep on drinking to pass away the time”.

The years 1931 and 1932 saw only limited recording activity due to the Depression – just one session in January 1931 and two short ones in March the following year. Perhaps in attempt to bolster sales in a flagging market Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell made two further versions of How Long. The first, rather appropriately, changed the central theme for one of desertion to that of hard times and the second, How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone, returned to its original theme. This latter version was cut in Vocalion’s New York studios and must have been quite popular because of all the copies by numerous other blues singers of the How Long theme, it is invariably this version that is sung. This was to be his last attempt at the number. Another song from that period which also spawned a myriad of copies was the double-timed, Low Down Dog, which was adopted by blues shouter Big Joe Turner and became synonymous with him. Other themes Leroy Carr returned to were, at one extreme, imprisonment (Jail Cell and Big House Blues) and, another, hokum (Papa’s On The House Top, Carried Water For The Elephant, Papa’s Got Your Water On and Papa Wants To Knock A Jug) most of the latter with Scrapper duetting on the choruses. Generally, however, the emphasis was placed on up-tempo material presumably not only as an antidote to the times but also to ensure sales. DOCD-5136
Tracklist :
1    Leroy Carr–    Let's Make Up And Be Friends Again 3:08
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
2    Leroy Carr–    Let's Disagree 2:50
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
3    Leroy Carr–    Sloppy Drunk Blues 2:55
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
4    Leroy Carr–    Hard Times Done Drove Me To Drink 3:25
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
5    Leroy Carr–    Long Road Blues 3:10
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
6    Leroy Carr–    Jail Cell Blues 3:08
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
7    Leroy Carr–    Four Day Rider 3:00
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
8    Leroy Carr–    Alabama Women Blues 2:48
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
9    Leroy Carr–    Papa's On The House Top 2:54
Vocals [vocal duet], Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals [vocal duet], Piano – Leroy Carr
10    Leroy Carr–    Carried Water For The Elephant 3:01
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
11    Leroy Carr–    Low Down Dog Blues 2:45
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
12    Leroy Carr–    Nineteen Thirty One Blues 2:56
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
13    Leroy Carr–    Love Crying Blues 2:56
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
14    Leroy Carr–    Papa's Got Your Water On 3:10
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
15    Leroy Carr–    Big House Blues 3:00
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
16    Leroy Carr–    New How Long, How Long Blues - Part 2 2:45
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
17    Leroy Carr–    What More Can I Do? 3:03
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
18    Leroy Carr–    Papa Wants To Knock A Jug 2:29
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
19    Leroy Carr And Scrapper Blackwell–    How Long Has That Evening Train Been Gone 2:50
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
20    Leroy Carr And Scrapper Blackwell–    Quittin' Papa 3:08
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
21    Leroy Carr And Scrapper Blackwell–    Lonesome Nights 3:02
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
22    Leroy Carr And Scrapper Blackwell–    I Keep The Blues 2:54
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 4 • 1932-1934 | DOCD-5137 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

People living in the early 21st century would do well to consider complete immersion in more than an hour's worth of vintage Vocalion blues records made during the darkest days of the Great Depression by pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. Vol. 4 in Document's Complete Recorded Works of Leroy Carr contains 23 sides dating from March 1932 through August 1934, with three takes of "Mean Mistreatin' Mama" (suffused with a mood that almost certainly inspired Big Maceo's sound) and an extra version of Carr's beautifully straightforward "Blues Before Sunrise." This is not a "get up and shake your butt" kind of collection, and anyone who complains that it isn't has missed the entire point of historic blues appreciation altogether. In order to connect with this music you need to take a few deep breaths and let these men work on your nervous system with songs that hover and contemplate existence in the middle of the night (as in "Midnight Hour Blues"' "when the blues creep up on you and carry your mind away"), sometimes upgrading to the purposeful lope or the brisk walk, depending on what kind of real-life stuff is being processed. "Hold Them Puppies" and "You Can't Run My Business No More" seem to pulse with energy born of the friction that sometimes arises between two people who don't always see eye to eye. "Court Room Blues" is a boogie with complications in the air; "Take a Walk Around the Corner" is a boogie with murder in its eye. "I Ain't Got No Money Now" is a handsome cousin to Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." As for "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," Carr has borrowed the title from the bedrock of African-American spirituals, but the song itself, like "Hurry Down Sunshine," "Moonlight Blues," and more than half the material on this collection, is a slow bluesy rumination on the difficulties of life in the world. arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Vocalion did no further recordings with Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell until February 1934. However, the March 1934 session which produced The Depression Blues also gave rise to one of Leroy Carr‘s most memorable songs, Midnight Hour Blues. To the tune of Betty and Dupree, Carr wistfully sang of loneliness and abandonment, throughout the number constructing such very real images as, “In the wee midnight hours, long ‘fore the break of day, (x2) when the blues creep up on you and carry your mind away” or “Blues why do you worry me why do you stay so long, (x2) you came to me yesterday, stayed with me all night long”. superbly complemented by Blackwell sympathetic, snapping guitar phrases.

It was in St. Louis where Carr and Blackwell eventually returned to recording via a Vocalion field unit who had set up a mobile studio in the city in February 1934. Over a two day period the unit recorded ten sides by Carr, two by Blackwell and ten religious items by Elder Oscar Saunders and his congregation. The sessions witnessed the partnership of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell at its most intuitive. The guitar playing of Blackwell created a complete fusion of feeling with, and understanding of, Carr’s mellow piano and plaintive vocals. Their perfect unison and comprehension of one another’s musical needs were never better displayed than on reflective numbers like, Mean Mistreater Mama, Hurry Down Sunshine and Shady Lane. If any song from that period encapsulated the sheer perfection and musical heights the pair had attained then, above all, it was the exquisite Blues Before Sunrise. After a further six month gap, the duo was back in the New York studio but in the interim fate had taken a hand. A rival company, Bluebird, had, intentionally or otherwise, discovered an artist with much of Carr’s appeal and many of his vocal qualities. In April 1934 Joe Pullum recorded Black Gal What Makes Your Head So Hard? which on release proved to be as big a success as Carr’s How Long, How Long six years previous. The record out sold most releases in any record company catalogue – even Leroy Carr‘s. Ironically, Black Gal, in exactly the same manner as How Long, spurned several follow-ups and numerous copies by other artists. Carr himself wasn’t immune to the success of the number, recording his own version (see DOCD-5138) in an attempt to capitalise on its popularity! DOCD-5138
Tracklist :
1        Gone Mother Blues 3:00
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
2        Midnight Hour Blues 3:03
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
3        Moonlight Blues 3:08
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
4        The Depression Blues 3:02
Guitar, Speech – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano, Speech – Leroy Carr
5        Mean Mistreater Mama 3:03
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
6        Mean Mistreater Mama 2:53
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
7        Mean Mistreater Mama No. 2 3:26
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
8        Court Room Blues 3:10
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
9        Hurry Down Sunshine 3:32
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
10        Corn Licker Blues 3:40
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
11        Hold Them Puppies 3:35
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
12        Shady Lane Blues 3:41
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
13        Blues She Gave Me 3:00
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
14        You Can't Run My Business No More 3:10
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
15        Blues Before Sunrise 3:30
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
16        Blues Before Sunrise 3:33
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
17        I Ain't Got No Money Now 3:07
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
18        Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child 2:41
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
19        Stormy Night Blues 2:35
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
20        Take A Walk Around The Corner 3:04
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
21        Baby, Come Back To Me 2:27
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
22        Blue Night Blues  2:55
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
23        My Woman's Gone Wrong 2:29
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 5 • 1934 | DOCD-5138 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Vol. 5 in Document's Complete Recorded Works of Leroy Carr focuses upon one of his last great periods of recording activity, from mid-August to mid-December 1934, providing the listener with 19 titles and three alternate takes. In addition to his main man Scrapper Blackwell, Carr is heard with guitarist Josh White on this collection, which is as strong as any other volume in Document's meticulously thorough Leroy Carr retrospective. Most of this music moves at an easy and unhurried pace, which is ideal for expressing simple intimate truths about loneliness, heartbreak, and interpersonal relationships. The ambling "George Street Blues" is more or less a sequel to Carr's "I Ain't Got No Money Now," and both songs are distantly related to Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." While the instrumentation is almost invariably confined to piano and guitar, "Big Four Blues" is punctuated with blasts from a hand-held imitation train whistle. As is the case with almost everything Leroy Carr ever recorded, most of these songs describe passions, habits, and full-blown addictions unflinchingly. "Hustler's Blues" contains Carr's famous line "Whiskey is my habit, good women is all I crave," while "Eleven Twenty-Nine Blues" offers a concise account of how "My gal got arrested and they put her in the county jail." Performances with extra rhythmic punch are the brisk "Barrelhouse Woman," the boogie-based "Bo Bo Stomp," "Don't Start No Stuff," and "Muddy Water," during which an unnamed river overflows its banks and meets Leroy Carr at his doorstep. arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. By mid-1934 Leroy Carr‘s health and general demeanour were in sharp decline. Unbeknownst to him, but later confirmed by his death certificate, he was suffering from kidney failure. In an attempt to dull the pain that this was causing, he drank even more excessively. Whatever the drinking might have been doing to Carr’s health it didn’t seem to have any adverse effect on the quality of his recordings. If there was any noticeable change it was more in the element of foreboding expressed by his blues. It was as if he could almost foresee that he was headed for an early grave “this old life I’m living sure ain’t gonna last me very long”-, but just how early would’ve probably surprised even Leroy Carr: His perennial problem of coming to terms with unsuccessful relationships were also becoming more focused during that period. In Cruel Woman Blues he sang with renewed bitterness:
All of this schooling education didn’t mean a thing to me (x2) When I met a good looking woman that was the end of me This woman treated me mean, she’s the cruellest I’ve ever seen (x2) The house is always dirty and her cooking I swear it didn’t clean

In early August, Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell had made a “guest” appearance at a Josh White session as his accompanists. Four songs were cut, two of which, not unnaturally, were Leroy Carr numbers. One was Carr’s 1932, Gone Mother, while the other was the recently recorded, Mean Mistreater, which had also been covered on Bluebird the previous June by Tampa Red covered on Bluebird the previous June by Tampa Red. The collaborations with White were subsequently released as by Pinewood Tom And His Blues Hounds and this brief liaison may well account for White’s appearance as second guitarist at two of Carr’s sessions in December 1934. The first of which was held on 14th December and it would seem that it was far from successful, as of the numbers recorded only half were commercially released; those that weren’t required more than one attempt to achieve the desired result. Even then these didn’t come up to the Company’s expectation despite the driving interaction between Josh White’s facile guitar and that of Scrapper’s string-slapping on numbers like Broken Hearted Man. One song that was issued from the session was the prison blues Eleven Twenty Nine but its subject was quite unlike his earlier Prison Bound or Christmas In Jail; it was far from the perspective of a girlfriend sent to the chain gang:
Now I’m gonna see the judge and talk to him myself (x2) Tell him that he sent my gal to the county road and left me by myself. Then I heard the jailer say, „Hello prisoners fall in line (x2) I’m also talkin’ about that long-chain woman that got 11.29

It was a common, though rarely remarked upon, occurrence for chain gangs to be of mixed sex and, perversely, it was the older women who did the labouring while the younger ones performed less strenuous tasks like carrying shovels etc, hence Carr’s well observed reference to the jailer’s comment of, “also talkin’ about that long chain woman that got 11.29” – 11.29 being a year. DOCD-5138
Tracklist :
1        Southbound Blues 2:48
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
2        Barrel House Woman 2:51
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
3        Barrel House Woman No. 2 2:38
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
4        Florida Bound Blues 2:44
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
5        Cruel Woman Blues  2:55
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
6        Muddy Water 2:43
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
7        I Believe I'll Make A Change 2:55
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
8        Black Gal (What Makes Your Head So Hard?) 3:01
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
9        Don't Start No Stuff 2:58
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
10        George Street Blues 3:02
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
11        Bo Bo Stomp 2:51
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
12        Big Four Blues 3:04
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
13        Hard Hearted Papa 3:05
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
14        Hard Hearted Papa 3:00
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
15        You Left Me Crying 2:57
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
16        You Left Me Crying 3:07
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
17        Broken Hearted Man 2:45
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
18        Evil-Hearted Woman 2:46
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
19        Good Woman Blues 2:56
Guitar, Speech – Josh White
Speech – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
20        Hustler's Blues 2:35
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
21        Eleven Twenty-Nine Blues 2:57
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
22        You've Got Me Grieving 3:08
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr

LEROY CARR — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 6 • 1934-1935 | DOCD-5139 (1992) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Some 60 years after his passing, Leroy Carr's complete issued recordings were chronologically compiled and released on compact disc by Document Records, Ltd. The sixth and last installment in that exhaustively complete series picks up the trail on December 17, 1934, and follows his remaining Vocalion recordings with a spate of Bluebirds waxed on February 25, 1935. Almost every song heard on this collection moves slowly and deliberately, as if to support an extra load of Weltschmerz. Although "Bread Baker" is a robustly hedonistic hymn to physical pleasures, "It's Too Short" cooks like a boogie, and "Just a Rag" is upbeat, throughout most of this collection Carr's subject matter is far from uplifting. "Tight Time Blues" is about abject poverty; "Rocks in My Bed" (the inspiration for one of Duke Ellington's greatest laments) describes the ordeal of insomnia; "Arlena" seems to convey Carr's fear of being abandoned; and "Longing for My Sugar" and "When the Sun Goes Down" are studies in heartache and loneliness. Grimmer still is "Suicide Blues," with its description of brains being blown out of his skull with a gun fired by his own hand. The chilliest title of all is "Six Cold Feet in the Ground," an unmistakable premonition of his own impending demise. During the last months of his short life, Leroy Carr was not at all well. Years of heavy alcohol consumption combined with a case of what appears to have been tuberculosis wore him down and finished him off somewhat abruptly, for on April 29, 1935, 30-year-old Leroy Carr checked out far ahead of schedule in Indianapolis, the town where he had made his first record with guitarist Scrapper Blackwell back in 1928. arwulf arwulf

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell made their last sides for Vocalion over the two day period 17/18 December 1934 and if Carr’s choice of material was any indication of his mood, then it was indeed a sombre one. Titles like the mournful Black Wagon (you gonna ride when that black wagon comes), the rolling Shining Pistol (“gonna get me a brand new pistol, with a long shiny barrel”) and the all too real images conjured up by his startlingly matter of fact approach to suicide, were abundant:
Took me a Smith an’ Wesson and blew out my brains (x2) I didn’t take no poison, I couldn’t stand the strain l ain’t no coward and I will tell you why (X2) I just tired of living, but wasn’t afraid to die

Due to its subject matter the song, Suicide Blues, not surprisingly failed to get a release while the up-tempo, almost barrelhouse, It’s Too Short, with its suggestions of sexual inadequacies

Baby I can’t play too long, I’m just a skinny fellow and I ain’t very strong

did favour release. Then Leroy Carr’s contract with Vocalion ended, Tampa Red, who was recording for rival company Bluebird, has claimed that he was responsible for persuading them into changing labels. Apparently Tampa took them to the Bluebird studios but during the signing of the contract a dispute broke out between Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell concerning its terms and conditions, with the latter becoming jealous because Leroy’s fame was getting him the lion’s share of the royalty payment. Despite the antagonism they proceeded to record but after the first four numbers Scrapper became angry again and, depending on which source is to be believed, was either ejected from the studio or departed of his own accord. In hindsight, it is far more likely that the session supervisors, rather than abandon the recording date, chose to calm matters down by placating Blackwell with suggestions of his own session in an adjoining studio (where he cut two instrumentals), leaving Carr to complete the one they had started. Following the altercation, Leroy resumed the session with a ferocious sounding Just A Rag (one can almost envisage the recording engineer asking Carr for the title of the number and being greeted with the frosty retort, it’s just a rag!) but he then lapsed into three introspective blues, each becoming more lachrymose than its predecessor until ending the session with the prophetic Six Cold Feet In The Ground:
Just remember me baby when I’m in six feet of cold, cold ground (x2) Always think of me mama, just say a good man has gone down. Don’t cry for me baby, baby after I’m gone (x2) I jest a good man loved you and ain’t done nothing wrong. Just lay my body baby in six cold feet of ground (x2) Well I have been the loser when the deal done gone down.

Three months later, while at an all-night party, Leroy Carr suffered a severe attack of nephritis and he died on Monday morning 29 April, 1935, just one month into his thirtieth year. His passing was mourned by many musicians some, like Bumble Bee Slim and Little Bill Gaither, cut tributes but the most poignant of these was recorded for Champion the month after his death – My Old Pal Blues by Scrapper Blackwell (BDCD-6030). DOCD-5139
Tracklist :
1        Bread Baker 3:01
Guitar, Speech – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
2        Tight Time Blues 2:55
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
3        Longing For My Sugar 2:53
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
4        Black Wagon Blues 3:03
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
5        Shinin' Pistol 2:54
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
6        Arlena 3:01
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
7        Arlena 3:02
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
8        It's Too Short 2:53
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
9        It's Too Short 2:54
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
10        My Good For Nothin' Gal 2:37
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
11        Suicide Blues 2:58
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
12        Rozetta Blues 2:51
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
13        Church House Blues 2:46
Guitar – Josh White, Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
14        Rocks In My Bed 3:05
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
15        When The Sun Goes Down 2:56
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
16        Bad Luck All The Time 2:46
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
17        Big Four Blues 3:08
Guitar – Scrapper Blackwell
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
18        Just A Rag 3:09
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
19        Ain't It A Shame 3:09
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
20        Going Back Home 3:13
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr
21        Six Cold Feet In The Ground 2:59
Vocals, Piano – Leroy Carr

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY – Complete Recorded Works 1930-1936 In Chronological Order | DOCD-5109 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This single CD from the European Document label has all of Montgomery's 26 prewar recordings as a leader. Two solo numbers are from 1930, including "Vicksburg Blues"; there are a couple songs from 1931 and four duets with guitarist Walter Vincson from 1935. The remainder of this release features Montgomery during a marathon session on Oct. 16, 1936 that resulted in 18 solo selections. All the numbers except the final three on this CD have vocals by Montgomery, but the most rewarding selections are those three instrumentals. On "Farish Street Jive," "Crescent City Blues" and "Shreveport Farewell," Little Brother Montgomery shows just how talented a pianist he was, making one regret that he felt compelled to sing (in a likable but not particularly distinctive voice) on all of the other numbers. A very complete and historic set.  Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. “Little Brother” — quite a name for a giant. He happened to be around much longer than expected (Eddie Boyd: “He always had a rendez-vous with death.”), and some of his later recordings seem superfluous. Yet, most of the notes he pressed were to the point. No more excuses for a man who was probably the greatest all-round piano player of his time in the Deep South. He was born Eurreal Wilford Montgomery in Kentwood, somewhere in the backwoods of Louisiana. His parents (like those of John Henry Davis, better known as Blind John, and Arthur “Montana” Taylor, for example) ran a barrelhouse. Of course, little Eurreal, soon to be called Little Brother Harper after his father, wasn’t allowed into the place, but the pianists working there frequented the Montgomery home as well. He even claimed a visit by Jelly Roll Morton, and there is little reason to doubt his memory. Most of the guys he heard — and learned from — were less fancy musicians, like the blues player he immortalized with his Varnado Anderson Blues, about the only tune Vanado Andrews (sic) from Kentwood could play. Little Brother Montgomery must have learned his lessons quick. He was accomplished enough to survive working on the Southern barrelhouse circuit when he left home at the age of eleven. Many musicians “lied” about when they did what, but research into other details of his early life (like an almost forgotten Mississippi high water in 1922) failed to prove him wrong. His letters were full of unusual data and wonderful phonetic spellings, again always to the point. How about “buddy P. T.” for Buddy Petit? Petit was the outstanding stylist on cornet around New Orleans in the post-ragtime period till the arrival of swing. By the mid-’20s Brother was sufficiently versatile to work in hot dance (i.e. jazz) bands with the likes of “buddy P. T.“, as he wrote it, for Buddy Petit and clarinetist George Lewis, the towering figure of the New Orleans revival. A few years later he progressed into the note-reading orchestra of Clarence Desdune, and in the ’30s Brother even led a swing band of his own in Mississippi. His unsurpassed mastery is documented by the mammoth Oct. 1936 session, when he cut 23 sides on one day — all his 17 solo recordings are assembled here while the five accompaniments are to be found on Document BDCD-6034. Little Brother Montgomery was not a one-strain player like most of the blues specialists. The magnificent Crescent City Blues is a case in point, with its ragtime-like structure. He learned it from one Lumis (or Loomis) Gibson, a pianist about whom nothing else seems to be known. His masterpiece, however, was Vicksburg Blues, his version of the wide-spread theme commonly known as “the 44s”. In those days pianists rarely mixed with “country” blues guitarists — if they brought along another player it was usually a drummer. Brother did recall working with Big Joe Williams but not with Skip James, who insisted that they had worked together. When Skip came here with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1967 he took a thrilled young blues (and jazz) enthusiast backstage to meet Son House, Bukka White and other greats — they all knew Brother “from way back”. Little Brother Montgomery‘s musical experience between the two World Wars spans an amazing scope of regions, milieus and thus styles, and much of this is reflected in this grand collection of vocal and piano blues. DOCD-5139
Tracklist :
1        No Special Rider Blues    2:53
2        Vicksburg Blues    2:56
3        Louisiana Blues    3:28
4        Frisco Hi-Ball Blues    2:33
5        The Woman I Love Blues    3:38
6        Pleading Blues    2:53
7        Vicksburg Blues No. 2    2:58
8        Mama You Don't Mean Me No Good    3:12
9        Misled Blues    2:43
10        The First Time I Met You    2:46
11        A&V Railroad Blues    2:34
12        Tantalizing Blues    2:48
13        Vicksburg Blues, Part 3    3:10
14        Louisiana Blues, Part 2    2:56
15        Santa Fe Blues    2:33
16        Something Keeps A-Worryin' Me    2:47
17        Out West Blues    2:46
18        Leaving Town Blues    3:00
19        West Texas Blues    2:50
20        Never Go Wrong Blues    3:07
21        Sorrowful Blues    2:57
22        Mistreatin' Woman Blues    3:08
23        Chinese Man Blues    2:45
24        Farish Street Jive    2:34
25        Crescent City Blues    2:36
26        Shreveport Farewell    2:36
Credits :
Guitar – Minnie Hicks (tracks: 3,4), Walter Vinson (tracks: 5 to 8)
Speech – Jesse "Monkey Joe" Coleman (tracks: 5 to 8)
Vocals, Piano – Little Brother Montgomery

BOOGIE WOOGIE & BARRELHOUSE ★ Piano Volume 1 • 1928-1932 — The Complete Recorded Works of PINE TOP SMITH, CHARLES AVERY, FREDDIE "REDD" NICHOLSON, "JABO" WILLIAMS | DOCD-5102 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Boogie Woogie & Barrelhouse Piano, Vol. 1 (1928-1932) contains a selection of material from the classic early blues pianists Pine Top Smith, Charles Avery, Freddie Nicholson and Jabo Williams. For specialists and academics, there is some very interesting music here -- Pine Top Smith's tracks are pretty terrific -- but most casual listeners will find that the exacting chronological sequencing, poor fidelity (all cuts are transferred from original acetates and 78s) and similar-sounding performances make this collection of marginal interest. Thom Owens

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. More is known about Pine Top Smith than the rest of the pianists here put together, so it’s ironic there should have been so many conflicting accounts of his life and death. According to Sarah Horton, whom he married in 1924, it was in Pittsburgh he first started playing Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie. Cow Cow Davenport claimed to have originated the term, “boogie woogie”, when he met Pine Top in a joint in Pittsburgh’s Sachem Alley and told him, “You sure have got a mean boogie woogie”. Davenport, acting as talent scout, recommended Pine Top to J. Mayo Williams of Brunswick / Vocalion records and Smith moved to Chicago in the summer of 1928. Possibly Williams wasn’t sure how best to present his new artist – the first unissued sessions had him accompanied by jug and kazoo and teamed in a vocal duet but his first issued sides were two impeccable watershed performances. This was the first time “boogie woogie” appeared on record and seems to be a dance or step. Certainly the limpid grace of Pine Top’s rolling bass and the suspense of the breaks makes it eminently danceable. On his quick return to the studio another six sides mainly focused on his vaudeville repertoire – apart from the precise Jump Steady while I’m Sober Now combined both sides of his background in the serio-comic dialogue and musical mixture of Blues and “sentimental stuff”. One more recording, the unissued Driving Wheel Blues, and Pine Top was gone; a stray bullet in a dance-hall brawl ended his life just two days later, 15 March 1929. Pine Top’s seminal recordings ushered in a very brief but exciting Golden Age of Blues piano recordings of mostly new artists. Charles Avery is a total unknown with one solo, Dearborn Street Breakdown a driving, up-tempo boogie, from October 1929 to his name. He is known, if at all, for his backing Lucille Bogan on one session and his storming accompaniments to Lil Johnson and, perhaps, Willie Harris and, here, to Freddie “Redd” Nicholson another totally unknown singer. From the first Nicholson session Avery’s 63rd Street Stomp was unissued but the titles and his style place him firmly in the mainstream of Chicago piano blues and boogie. Jabo Williams is the odd man out. From his only session in 1932 one title, Pratt City, refers to his Birmingham, Alabama origins as do Fat Mama and House Lady two songs later recorded by Birmingham’s Walter Roland while Polock Town celebrates a section of East St Louis. Jab’s music is barrelhouse piano blues of a very high order – rolling basses and attacking treble, melodic themes and even one semi-ragtime piece in Pratt City. The double-sided Kokomo is interesting as the earliest (1932) mature version of the theme that would provide James Kokomo Arnold with a recording sobriquet and Robert Johnson with the basis for ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. DOCD-5102
Tracklist :
1    Pine Top Smith–    Pine Top's Blues (Take A)    2:52
2    Pine Top Smith–    Pine Top's Blues (Take B)    2:43
3    Pine Top Smith–    Pine Top's Boogie Woogie (Take A)    3:19
4    Pine Top Smith–    Pine Top's Boogie Woogie (Take B)    3:08
5    Pine Top Smith–    I Got More Sense Than That    2:47
6    Pine Top Smith–    I'm Sober Now    3:07
7    Pine Top Smith–    Big Boy They Can't Do That    3:32
8    Pine Top Smith–    Jump Steady Blues (Take A)    3:16
9    Pine Top Smith–    Jump Steady Blues (Take B)    3:15
10    Pine Top Smith–    Now I Ain't Got Nothing At All    2:45
11    Pine Top Smith–    Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out    2:43
12    Charles Avery–    Dearborn Street Breakdown    3:14
13    Freddie "Redd" Nicholson–    The Roller's Rub    3:15
14    Freddie "Redd" Nicholson–    Dirty No Gooder    2:56
15    Freddie "Redd" Nicholson–    You Gonna Miss Me Blues    2:58
16    Freddie "Redd" Nicholson–    I Ain't Sleepy    2:42
17    Freddie "Redd" Nicholson–    Freddie's Got The Blues    3:11
18    "Jabo" Williams–    Ko Ko Mo Blues - Part 1    3:14
19    "Jabo" Williams–    Ko Ko Mo Blues - Part 2    3:05
20    "Jabo" Williams–    House Lady Blues    3:29
21    "Jabo" Williams–    Jab Blues    3:15
22    "Jabo" Williams–    My Woman Blues    3:27
23    "Jabo" Williams–    Polock Blues    3:17
24    "Jabo" Williams–    Pratt City Blues    3:13
25    "Jabo" Williams–    Fat Mama Blues    3:13